Dạy và học tiếng Anh ở trường Đại học Cảnh sát Nhân dân dưới góc nhìn giao thoa văn hóa

Chi
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hi nhp Tháng 11/2014 609 DẠY VÀ HỌC TIẾNG ANH Ở TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CẢNH SÁT NHÂN DÂN DƯỚI GÓC NHÌN GIAO THOA VĂN HÓA Nguyn Th Vân Anh, Nguyn Th Thanh Phng Trường Đại học Cảnh sát Nhân dân Tóm t t: Từ trước đến nay, đã có rất nhiều nghiên cứu về vấn đề ảnh hưởng của văn hóa đối với việc dạy và học. Theo đó các nhà nghiên cứu đã đưa ra nhiều quan điểm cho việc dạy và học tiếng Anh. Dựa trên các quan điểm đó, rất nhiều quốc gia muốn cải cách hệ thống giáo dục của mình. Tuy nhiên, một số quốc gia không thành công trong việc cải cách vì bối cảnh của họ, sự liên kết giữa quá trình giảng dạy và học tập cũng như cách thức tiến hành cải cách. Nghiên cứu này tập trung vào việc giảng dạy tiếng Anh ở Trường Đại học Cảnh sát Nhân dân tại Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh, khó khăn tổng thể ảnh hưởng đến quá trình dạy và học, cũng như sự khác biệt mang tính chất lịch sử lâu đời của hai nền giáo dục: nền giáo dục phương Tây và nền giáo dục phương Đông. Abstract: Over the years, a great deal of researches studies about teaching and learning influenced by the culture has been carried out. And the researchers found out certain theoretical points for English teaching and learning. According to these theoretical points, many nations in the world want to reform their systems of education. However, some are not successful because of their own contexts, the combination between the process of learning and teaching and the way to operate them at many different levels. This paper is about EFL class at The People’s Police University, Ho Chi Minh City, the complex, systemic nature of the process of learning and teaching influenced, and the two different significant and long- history systems of education in the world: Western education and Traditional East Asian education. LEARNING AND TEACHING ENGLISH AT THE PEOPLE’S POLICE UNIVERSITY: A CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE INTRODUCTION Cross-cultural perspective on learning and teaching is illustrated in summary of David Watkins and his colleagues’ research. Their research was made to server two mains aims. The first aim is to give some evidence to the cross- cultural validity of Western principles of student learning. The second aim is to study how Chinese students think and go about learning and teaching. David Watkins (2000) indicated that any educational practice must be understood from multiple perspective and changes which brought about at anyone level. Summary There is a distinction between Western on which most major theories of teaching and learning are based and Eastern culture. The distinction is characterized by the following main aspects: Memorizing and understanding Although it is said that Chinese learners are rote learners, but to many teachers and good students, memorizing and understanding cannot stand separately. They interlock and influence on each other and influence on high learning outcomes. (Kember, 1996; Watkins and Biggs, 1996; Marton et al, 1997). However, Western teachers try to object to rote learning which will not bring good results to learners. Memorizing and understanding are viewed differently by Western and Eastern teachers. Educators in countries such as the UK have tended to reject rote learning, e.g. memorizing without understanding because they believe that students cannot understand by memorizing. However, high quality learning outcomes usually require both processes which can complement each other (Kember, 1996; Tiu ban 4: Văn hóa trong hot đng ging dy ngoi ng thi kỳ hi nhp 610 Watkins & Bigg, 1996; Martol et al., 1997). In in- depth interviews of the teachers and students in Hong Kong and China indicates that many of them see memorizing and understanding are not separate but interlock processes. The role of repetition According to the research, Chinese students use repetition for two different purposes, both to create a “deep impression” and to deepen or develop understanding by discovering new meaning. Whereas Western students tend to use repetition to check what they have already remembered (Watkins, 2000). Chinese school and Western school students make use of repetition in quite different purposes. The Western students tented to check that they had really remembered something by repetition. The Chinese students, whereas, use repetition to deepen or develop understanding. (Dahlin & Watkins, 2000). Intrinsic versus Extrinsic Motivation The intrinsic motivation of Western students is the desire of deep learning strategies (Biggs, 1987). Whereas Chinese students’ motivation is activated by many mixed factors: personal ambition, family face, peer support, material reward, and even interest. (Watkins and Biggs, 1996). The two cultures also in differ in their students’ motivation and orientation. Achievement Motivation Each Western student tries his best for his own success as well as his own reward (Atkinson, 1964). Meanwhile, each Chinese student is pressured to study hard for the parents’ educational level and his matter of “family face” (Rao, 1993). Each individual needs to be successful in Western societies. In contrast, in East Asian societies, success involves contribution of many people, family, friends (Holloway, 1988; Salili, 1996). There are differences in orientation between cultural groups. (Tang , 1996) proved that Western students show less collaborative than Hong Kong students when they studying outside the tertiary classroom. Hong kong students find learning collaboratively can promote deeper learning strategies. (Chan & Watkins, 1994). Collective versus Individual Orientation Vice versa to Western countries, China places more emphasis on group rather than individual good. Group work In Western classes, students get involved in group work through simultaneous talk. By way of contrast, in Chinese classes, teachers often use sequential talk for students. Their approach to group work more likely cognitive – centered and more skills-centered particularly in the language learning area in Western approach. (Jin and Cortazzi, 1998). The approaches to group work between different cultures are not the same. The Western approaches based on developing skill rather than cognitive skills. The former involves pairs or groups work on a problem together at the same time while the later may involve just two students’ performance to the teacher and the rest of the class. Questioning in Chinese class According to Jin and Cortazzi (1998), after having learnt independently from the teacher, Chinese students ask questions based on knowledge while Western students ask questions during the class to gather all the of the materials learnt. Questioning in class takes place at different time and has different purposes. Jin & Cortazzi (1998) found that students in Western classroom raise questions during the process of learning. That implies that they prefer “talking to know”. Chinese students, however, often ask questions after they have learnt or “talking of the known”. Western educators have had a number of misperception when applying some basic tenets of the Western educational methods to Eastern (especially Chinese) classrooms. This cross- cultural perspective strongly recommends that serious consideration should be taken. In order to improve the country’s educational outcomes, cultural contexts must be counted for the validity of teaching and learning methods. Good teacher According to Jin and Cortazzi (1998), Chinese students considered teachers as the one who have deep knowledge, be able to answer the questions and be a good moral model. Meanwhile, Western Chi
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hi nhp Tháng 11/2014 611 teachers are able to arouse the students’ interest, explain clearly, use effective instructional methods and organize a range of activities. Good student In Western country, good student is the one who obeys and pays attention to what teacher is saying. Nevertheless, in China student has impact on the classroom climate (Jin and Cortazzi, 1998). Chinese Conceptions of Teaching According to Gao (1998), there are five basic conceptions: “knowledge delivery”, “exam preparation”, “ability development”, “attitude promotion”, “conduct guidance”. The two first of these corresponds rather well with the dimension identified in Western countries. Vietnamese culture is the same as Chinese culture in some extents, especially both countries are influenced by the Confucianism; we ourselves quite understand and sympathize with our students in term of their orientation, motivation and learning strategies as well. Vietnamese students also have pressure to succeed academically irrespective of the parents ‘educational level. Their success is seen as their families’ success while in Western societies achievement motivation is regarded as individual competition. We agree with some of the above hypothesis of Western teachers when they compare the students in two different cultures. According to our teaching experience, we think it is logical and necessary to view understanding and creativity as slow and long process. The first one requires much metal effort which cannot take place suddenly. It takes a certain amount of time for learners to digest the input they are exposed to. Besides, understanding is an internal process of our brain which is affected by many factors such as learners’ age, cognitive style, aptitude and intelligence, motivation and so on. Jin and Cortazzi (1998) believed that the second process depends on solid basic knowledge, for many British teachers “children learn through being creative” but Vietnamese teachers see the process as reversed. In our own classes, the students are usually expected to promote their creativity at the last stage of learning procedure, when they feel confident enough to be involved in free practice or daily life-related tasks. In other word, understanding and creativity should be the result of practice. Therefore, it is unfair to claim that our students are not creative or fail to understand after only one lesson. On the other hand, we do not think it is right to assume students are rote “learners” while they are memorizing. Like Chinese students, the Vietnamese students tend to memorize but it does not mean all of them are learning without understanding. Many young learners often learn by heart or memorize something because they have not developed their analytic thinking. Students can develop understanding through the process of memorization, especially through repetition drill in language classes. High quality learning outcomes usually require both processes which can complement each other (Kember, 1996; Watkins & Biggs, 1996; Marton et al., 1997). Our English teaching experience shows that learners should always be given enough time to familiar with the new knowledge before analyzing for understanding. Memorization should be seen as preparatory step where students are given controlled practice such as repetition, substitution or got ready for less controlled practice. Then they easily access to the next step, e.g. understanding and developing creativity in free practice. Here are some similarities and differences between Western education and non-Western education, typically Chinese education. They are shown obviously in the following the table: Western education Non-western education Extrinsic motivation Intrinsic motivation Individual orientation in learning Collective orientation in learning Active in learning Passive in learning Success based on effort and ability Most success based on hard working and effort Small- size class (18 – 22 students) Large- size class (50 – 60 students) Group work: skills- centered Group work: cognitive- centered Classroom disciplinary: behavioral problems. Classroom disciplinary: Teachable students Tiu ban 4: Văn hóa trong hot đng ging dy ngoi ng thi kỳ hi nhp 612 From some facts above, we recognized that Chinese students are “docile” (Biggs, 1996), and they believe that their teachers and friends are a whole “family”. Therefore, they treat to each other politely. And the teachers in China do not spend so much time on getting students participates in classroom tasks and their homework. Contrary to Chinese students, Western students are active in learning and they learn for themselves. Besides, in the classroom, Western teachers have to deal with classroom management and have to work hard to answer all the questions in class, which does not exist in Chinese culture and Chinese classroom. Consequently, educational practice in Vietnam is less or more familiar with Chinese education, which is characterized by collectivism, socialization for achievement and high acceptance of power and authority (Zenhui Rao, 2006). Vietnam was dominated by Chinese for about a millennium, by the French for about a century and by the American for about for thirty years. That means our education was influenced mostly by Chinese education, especially Confucian. There is a famous Chinese saying, “Growing children without teaching them is the father’s sin, teaching students without using strict discipline is the teacher’s offence and learning unsuccessfully is the students’ guilt”. With this point of view in mind, we strongly agree with David Watkins (2000) and we would like to discuss the first issue about the role of the teacher in non-Western countries, typically, in China. First, the teacher is considered as the “fount of knowledge” and it is the teacher who decides which knowledge is to be taught and the students accept and learn that knowledge (Ginsberg, 1992). The teacher is responsible for arranging and presenting knowledge in the most suitable way. He is in charge of explaining the selected material. In addition, he has to make the learning easier for students. That means learning is to know and to understand new knowledge completely. He also has a general or detail knowledge of his subject to answer all the questions raised by the students about what is in the book and what he has experienced. Because of his wide range knowledge, students can consult teachers’ advice for future course of study. Therefore, teachers maintain the respect from the students, students’ parents, and the society as a whole. This respect for the teacher including his knowledge and his moral model is reflected in the following traditional verses: “To get across the river, you have to build a bridge, to have well-educated children, you have to respect the teacher”. That means the teacher is a model of both knowledge and morality; and the value that learning is moral duty and studying hard is a responsibility to the family (see also Lee, 1996). Second, teacher is able to evoke the students’ interest by using his own strategies such as analyzing the problem, paraphrasing what is in the book, asking questions, games, drills and practices, discussing a particular topic, using visual instructions (pictures, films) The second issue, which we want to mention, is the role of Repetition and belief in it fervently. To gain new knowledge through the text, students’ first use “repetition” as the rote of understanding, then the meaning and interpretation come after that. They learn to shape the knowledge before learning what they mean. Therefore, the students have a good deal of repetitive learning. That means students need more mental effort to memorize all aspects of knowledge. In addition, I still keep finding that the students use “repetition” for different purposes. First, they tend to keen on the exact understanding the meaning, a focus on apart fragments and specific syntactic structures (Rao, 2002). The teacher believes that “Learning sparsely but well” is a practical and economic way to second language acquisition (Li, 1984). Then, they constantly review what they have learnt. It is said that we use five organs in learning: eyes to see the shape, ears to hear the sound, hand to write, Chi
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hi nhp Tháng 11/2014 613 mouth to speak the sound, mind to think about the meaning (Rao, 2006). As far as we concern, we think that repetition will lead to memorizing. With the thorough memory of the lessons learned, the good students may have qualitative and quantitative analyses based on their knowledge. Nevertheless, repetition really takes time of the students in their learning, especially weak learners. RESEACHERS’ CONTEXT AND METHODOLOGY We are now working with the first year students at the People’s Police University Ho Chi Minh City (PPU). Being a training institution of the armed forces, the university has a unique culture which manifests in hierarchism and iron discipline. In class, the teacher is the students’ superior. Any suggestions made by the teacher, however “softly uttered,” must be taken as an order. Collectivism is prominent here in that a member’s action would affect the whole organization and vice versa. A person works not for his own interests but for the sake of the collective, and the collective is there to provide support for each of its members (Brown, 2001). Another cultural aspect of the university is that ninety percent of the leaders, teachers and students are male. In all, women account for about ten percent of the university’s population. The departments that have the highest percentage of women are the Department of Foreign Languages (which is in charge of English) and the Kitchens (37.5% and 95% respectively). Male and female students live in separate dormitories. All of their activities, from learning to eating, playing, and shopping must be carried out within the confines of the campus. No student can leave the campus without his or her teacher’s permission. Students must always wear uniforms on which their names are clearly printed, whether they are on or off campus. The only exception is when they are playing sports and working in the schoolyard. When seeing a teacher, students must either bow or salute with their right hands (i.e. the army way of greeting). In class, teachers and students normally call each other “dong chi” (comrade). The situation, however, is more flexible in the English classes, which might be due to the fact that teachers of English are, to a certain extent, affected by Western culture. One of the regulations that affect English teaching and learning at the institution, besides that of “must-not-leave-the-campus” eliminates most chances for students to use their English in real world situations. All the above cultural factors have created a unique teaching and learning climate in the institution and have an effect on all aspects of English teaching and learning there. Such an organizational culture is also a reflection of Eastern culture affected by Confucianism as well as Marxist ideology, as Ellis affirms, “Whether of the old Confucian style or the Marxist-Leninist variety, the power-distance between teacher and student, the collectivist nature of social groups, the need to save face, and finally the confirmatory messages in the system of pronouns have all served to perpetuate the conformist teacher/student relationship in Vietnam.” (Ellis, 1994). At the university, s